


Breaking Through the Checkpoints

by florahart



Category: Chinese Duolingo Course For English Speakers
Genre: F/M, I mean this is crack and we know it right?, No actual porn, characters in an app getting busy, this is a different kind of cybersex but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28328178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/florahart/pseuds/florahart
Summary: Li Hua wants her world to expand beyond checkpoint two, and Zhang Ming might be able to make it happen.  And even if he can't, he's easy on the eyes.
Relationships: Li Hua/Zhang Ming
Comments: 14
Kudos: 15
Collections: Yuletide Madness 2020





	Breaking Through the Checkpoints

**Author's Note:**

  * For [teyla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teyla/gifts).



> So, as it happens I've been letting Duolingo teach me Chinese for the last ...80 or so? days, because there's a pandemic and why not. I saw this prompt literally about 90 minutes ago, here on Christmas day, and was like, man I have not written any crack in a hot minute, so.
> 
> I may not have gone the direction you suggested, but I hope you are entertained anyway.

The thing is, Teacher Li has always wanted to be a writer.

She waits, patiently, for the concept to arrive. Reading, yes. Newspapers and books. And there’s food, although she hopes they’ll move beyond noodles, rice, and fish soon. And beyond teachers and doctors. There are _hundreds_ of other things a person might be!

Also, she likes her tea tepid, thanks, neither iced nor hot; surely that’s an option that should come up eventually? She keeps waiting.

“Are you busy in the morning?” a man asks. He’s dressed casually and is holding a cup of coffee and a newspaper.

Teacher Li looks over at him, uncertain about when he arrived. What she wants to say is, what concern is it of yours? But instead she says, “My younger sister has three cats.”

He lifts his chin in a bit of a nod. “Your younger sister is very busy. And you?”

“No worries. I want to eat fish.” She does _not_! She wants vegetables, actually.

“I also want to eat fish,” he says with a grimace. So, okay, he gets it. Also, he’s kind of cute. At least if she’s stuck in teacherdom eating rice and ice water, she can make friends. “Do you like to read the newspaper?”

“I read it in the morning. I go to work in the morning.”

“Are you a doctor?”

“Doctor Wang,” he pauses. “Doctor Wang loves his mother.”

“I also love my mother. My doctor’s last name is Wang.” Li Hua rolls her eyes. She sounds like she only knows about forty words. “Doctor Wang lives in Britain.”

“I also know Doctor Wang. My name is Zhang Ming, and you?”

“My last name is Li, my name is Li Hua,” Teacher Li replies. “Doctor Wang’s home is in London.”

Zhang Ming smiles, which makes him quite attractive, actually. Like, _really_ attractive. Maybe they can be more than friends. “I am not a doctor. I am a teacher.”

“Do you love your student?”

“It is 5:30 now. My family lives in New York.”

Li Hua wishes they could have a real conversation. What if they never learn the word for writer? What if she is stuck eating fish and drinking iced tea, which Doctor Wang drinks, until the next update? Or the one after that?

A light comes on, and Zhang Ming laughs. New levels are open. “Ah,” he says., “I cook every day!”

“Do you eat breakfast at 8?”

“I eat breakfast at 5:30 every morning. I am a teacher.”

She knows that story well enough. “I also am a teacher. My older brother gets up at 8.”

“Is your boyfriend very tall?” The way he says it, he’s asking, actually, whether she _has_ a boyfriend.

She looks him up and down. “This afternoon I don’t have a boyfriend.” Then she adds, “You are very tall.”

“My mother and father are also tall.”

“My father is tall, and my mother is very pretty.”

“Your mother’s daughter is very pretty.” 

Okay, roundabout, but sometimes the app comes up with really long sentences out of nowhere. Also, she blushes. “Thank you. Is your girlfriend pretty?”

Zhang Ming scowls and looks like he’s trying to say something, but the app must have other ideas. Finally, he sighs. “Are you busy in the morning?”

He already asked that. Of course, this time her answer might be completely different. Bu then she smiles. “I drink hot tea in the morning. And you?”

“I also drink hot tea in the morning! What time do you go to work?”

“I go to work every morning at 7.”

“Where do you go to school?” 

She doesn’t ‘go to school,’ exactly, but the meaning is close enough. “I go to school to the left of the hospital. Will we drink hot tea in the morning?”

“I am a teacher. I go to school to the left of the restaurant.” He grins at her. “We will drink hot tea in the morning.”

She stands and holds out her hand – she doesn’t need words for that. “I like hot tea with... ice water?”

“I also like hot tea with ice water. My home is behind the hospital.”

Good. They’re on the same page. Li Hua walks with him, considering whether to try to tell him anything else about herself or just …let physicality take over. She never does anything like this, but right now all she wants is to stop saying the sentences the app allows and instead do a lot of things the app is never going to teach vocabulary for. And Zhang Ming is very, very appealing.

He leans toward her. “I don’t want fish now,” he whispers conspiratorially. “Tomorrow I will drink hot tea with ice water.”

“Do you want to eat now?”

“No, sorry, I am busy.” His grin broadens, and then shoves together words they have, but not sentences the app allows them to make. “I want to read… you. I like to be next to you. Will we go to bed?”

She stares at him. How did he do that? She’s never been able to make a _new_ sentence. 

He interprets her stare as a rejection and starts to apologize, biting his lip. “Sorry. Excuse me, sorry, you do not know me, I will—”

“No,” she says, turning to face him. “We will go to bed. We will cook breakfast at 5:30. We will…” She doesn’t know the trick of it, but maybe he’ll teach her. And she definitely wants to learn – and then, in fact, she will be a writer. She grins a little at the thought. "Your home is behind the hospital."

They set off toward his home once more, and she blushes again, thinking about how his hand feels in hers, how the rest of his body will feel. He is tall, and handsome. And he thinks she is pretty.

And clearly, he’s smart and determined, if he's figured out a workaround.

Li Hua still wants to be a writer, but for now, she wants to be a student and see where this thing goes. And in the morning, maybe at 5:30, they’ll wake up, drink tea, and start talking about plans for the weekend.


End file.
